Bear with me.

There is a scene in The Return of the Jedi.  Vader and the Emperor have been after Luke, trying to get him to join them, telling him that he has lead his friends into a trap, telling him that he's all ready lost.  Luke has thrown his best against Vader and been beaten down like a puppy.  He's out classed and he knows it.  Unless he opens himself to the Dark Side, that is.

But, rather than do that, Luke runs.  He hides himself in the shadows of both the Death Star and his own mind and nothing and nothing Vader says or does can draw him out.  Until Vader realizes that there is another, a sister.  And threatens her.

And Luke comes out.  With new skill and new purpose and with Vader's theme playing instead of his own, Luke embraces the Dark Side to protect his sister because there's many ways to sacrifice yourself to save your family.

Previously on Buffy, well, I missed it.  However, it probably had to do with Joyce dying and Glory whining.  Dawn's the Key, remember?

Presently on Buffy, well, she's dropping out of college.  Right now she's dropping poetry although, as she tells her professor, she hopes to return next semester.  Ben too, has had to rethink his future plans having lost his job because Glory hijacked the body for two weeks.  Which she does again just before going to credits.

As usual there are two plots but, in this case, the B plot is pretty minor.  Basically, Dawn has been skipping school to the point where her principle fears that Buffy may loose custody of Dawn.  Buffy, of course, tries to get Giles to be the parent and Giles, of course, tells Buffy he can't and so, therefore, Buffy, of course, over reacts and becomes a character from Tom Brown's School Days.  Dawn, of course, continues to rebel until Buffy spills the threat.  Unfortunately, plot A blows up around now and we'll just have to deal with the custody thing some other show.

Glory, who apparently likes bubble baths has a plan.  She is a clever one.  She'll just send the minions to spy on *everyone* until they figure out who the Key is.  Four months plus and this is the plan.  Anyway, she decides that Tara is the Key and sends minions to watch the Scoobs while she collects.

Which is pretty easy to do because Tara is alone having just had a fight with Willow.  Glory quickly finds out that Tara isn't the Key and, despite having her hand crushed and the threat of having her brain sucked, Tara refuses to tell Glory who the Key is.  Willow arrives just in time to see but not prevent Glory from stealing Tara's sanity.  At the hospital the doctors fix up the hand but can do nothing for the missing sanity.  And, in her grief, Willow's sanity takes a hike as well.

From Giles' upper level she steals everything that Dawn missed.  She heads to Glory's apartment and, with new skill and new purpose (and with a Vader like theme playing) attacks.  She manages to slow Glory with a tar spell and hurt her a bit but not for long and not permanently.  Buffy arrives and, because Willow weakened Glory, is able to beat Glory up a bit to allow them to escape.

Willow's sanity returned Buffy and Dawn visit Tara and Willow at Tara's dorm room next day.  Willow has had Tara released and plans on taking care of her.  These plans are rudely interraupted by Glory though who arrives via the new doorway.  As the sunlight streams in Tara looks at Dawn and sees her as the Key.  And Glory smiles and Dawn, Willow and Buffy know they're screwed.

Fade to black.

Random Quotes
Buffy: Dawn needs an authority figure.  A strong guiding hand.  She'll listen to you.
Giles: Like you always have.

Willow: Don't you trust me?
Tara: With my life.
Willow: That's not what I mean.

Tara: I trust you.  I just...  I don't know where I'm gonna fit in.  In your life.  When you...
Willow: When I change back.  Yeah.  This is a college thing.  Just a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boystown.  You think that?
Tara: Should I?
Willow: I'm really sorry that I didn't establish my lesbo street cred before I got into this relationship.  But you're the only woman I've ever fallen in love with so how on earth could you ever take me seriously?

Dawn: Those monks put grades K through 8 in my head.  Can't we just wait and see if they stick grade 9 in there too?

Tara: (draws herself up, pushes down the pain and stares silently and defiantly at Glory)

Willow: She's my everything.

Buffy: No.  I told Willow it would be like suicide.
Spike: I'd do it.  Right person.  Person I loved.  I'd do it.

Tara: Look at that!  Look at that!  Oh, the light.  So pure.  Such pure green energy.  It's so beautiful.

Random Notes:
Any one else confused by the idea of vampires bruising?

Again, short summary because a lot happened without a lot happening.  And lot of quotes and notes because a lot happened.  Strange how that works.

So, does that mean Doc (Joel Grey) from Forever is a practitioner of the dark magic?  If Willow keeps this up will she have a funky little tail to go with the solid eye colour?

I mean, vampires bruise?

Once again it's Spike, not best friend Buffy, who understands Willow.  Now, mind you, he's supposed to be all heads over with Buffy and Buffy is supposed to be a bit emotionally withdrawn but still.  Perhaps Willow and Spike share some kindred soul.

Like, bruising is ruptured blood vessels under the skin and vampires don't have beating heats to pump the blood around in the body.  So let's say that the blood that's been congealing in Spike since the 1800s did cause a bruise then why would it heal.

Assuming that it is early May in the Buffyverse as it is in the real world then won't Buffy be dropping out of school a whole month early?

This bruise thing is very distracting.

Angel Notes:
There is a common thread amongst all the Team Angel and the core Scoobies.  Everyone of them has been partially or wholly abandoned by their families.  In the case of the core Scoobies they remained misfits in a band of misfits while the Team Angel members found surrogate family - Queen Cordelia her clique, Wesley the Council, Kate the police force, Gunn his gang.  And, where the Scoobies discovered that banding together made them stronger the A-Team is only now discovering that they only have each other.

Reasons to watch Angel:
1) Angel basking in the artificial sunlight at the artificail beach.
2) Cordy's swimsuit and the reaction of Wesley, Gunn and Angel when Angel describes it.
3) The Host's cousin.

Reasons not to watch Angel:
1) Food poisoning.
2) Demon's eating habits.
3) Actually, anything related to food was icky this episode.